127-598: Wildstorm Productions (stylized as WildStorm ) is an American comic book imprint. Originally founded as an independent company established by Jim Lee under the name "Aegis Entertainment" and expanded in subsequent years by other creators, Wildstorm became a publishing imprint of DC Comics in 1998. Until it was shut down in 2010, the Wildstorm imprint remained editorially separate from DC Comics, with its main studio located in California . The imprint took its name from
254-487: A naturalistic style of superheroes with human failings, fears, and inner demons - heroes who squabbled and worried about the likes of paying the rent. In contrast to the super-heroic do-gooder archetypes of established superheroes at the time, this ushered in a revolution. With dynamic artwork by Kirby, Steve Ditko , Don Heck , and others, complementing Lee's colorful, catchy prose, the new style became very popular among teenagers and college students who could identify with
381-498: A tabloid -sized, 10-by-15-inch (250 mm × 380 mm), 36-page magazine with a card-stock, non-glossy cover. An anthology , it mixed humor features such as the funny animal comic "Pelion and Ossa" and the college-set "Jigger and Ginger" with such dramatic fare as the Western strip "Jack Woods" and the " yellow-peril " adventure "Barry O'Neill", featuring a Fu Manchu -styled villain, Fang Gow. Issue #6 (Oct. 1935) brought
508-498: A Siegel/Shuster creation from the slush pile and used it as the cover feature (but only as a backup story) in Action Comics #1 (June 1938). The duo's alien hero, Superman , was dressed in a cape and colorful tights. The costume, influenced by Flash Gordon 's attire from 1934, evoked circus aerial performers and circus strongmen, and Superman became the archetype of the " superheroes " that would follow. In early 1939,
635-603: A back-up story in the Eye of the Storm titles. A new ongoing Authority series began the storyline of the Coup d'état crossover, which ran through Authority , Sleeper , Stormwatch: Team Achilles and Wildcats 3.0. Two Winter Special anthologies also came out. Most of the line, except Sleeper , were canceled two years after their introduction. In 2004 , WildStorm revamped its array of sub-imprints. The core titles were grouped into
762-735: A collection of English-language newspaper inserts originally published in Europe as the 1837 book Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois by Rodolphe Töpffer . The G. W. Dillingham Company published the first known proto-comic-book magazine in the US, The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats , in 1897. A hardcover book, it reprinted material—primarily the October 18, 1896, to January 10, 1897, sequence titled "McFadden's Row of Flats"—from cartoonist Richard F. Outcault 's newspaper comic strip Hogan's Alley , starring
889-569: A daughter named Cyan. He realizes five years have passed since his death. Spawn runs into a fellow Hellspawn, who informs him that his powers are fueled by Necroplasm and that once they are depleted, he will return to Hell. Not wanting to return to Hell, Spawn attempts to find a new purpose in life while using as little power as possible. Spawn is thrust into several antihero adventures, taking down street gangs and organized crime in New York City . Battling against various criminals, Spawn finds
1016-520: A deal with Malebolgia , Simmons is given new life as a hellspawn and the chance to see his wife Wanda once again. The deal is revealed to be a trick, as Simmons is brought back to life five years after his death, unrecognizable to his wife and missing many of his memories. With little other choice, Simmons adopts his new hell inspired identity as Spawn in an effort to atone for his past sins and use his newfound powers for good. The series has spun off several other comic books, including Angela , Curse of
1143-577: A demonic guardian named the Violator . Simmons, now a Hellspawn, returns to Earth with a lack of understanding of his previous identity. He wanders in a state of confusion with only vague memories of his former life, including his own name, his marriage to Wanda and the fact that he was once deceased. Spawn occasionally experiences painful flashbacks and eventually remembers his deal with Malebolgia. Using CIA files, he tracks down his wife and finds her married to his former best friend Terry, with whom she has
1270-457: A doorway to Hell and bring back his brothers. However, before he can form a portal, Wilma shows up and his love for her allows Saunders to take back control. Intending to close the portal, he goes through it, and takes Wilma with him due to being angry over her leaving him in the chute. Zera reappears as a head in a jar . Spawn is summoned by a voodoo priestess named Mambo Suzanne. Zera attempts to take over Nyx's body and fights Spawn. However, she
1397-495: A film based on The Authority was in development and would help form the basis of the new DCU . In November 2023, María Gabriela De Faría was cast to play The Engineer, a member of The Authority, in the forthcoming Superman film ahead of The Authority film. American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States , on average 32 pages, containing comics . While
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#17327802753981524-558: A god and preserve the human race. He has to eat a piece of Forbidden Fruit from the Garden of Eden to gain such power. She tells Spawn he must fight against The Disciple. It is revealed there are 12 Disciples, each one representing one of Jesus. Spawn's power is also weakened because demons cannot enter the Garden. However, with guidance from Cyan, he defeats every Disciple but Judas, who Cyan tells Spawn not to kill. Judas then stabs Cyan in
1651-599: A gradual decline, due to a shift away from print media in the wake of television and the impact of the Comics Code Authority . The late 1950s and the 1960s saw a superhero revival and superheroes remained the dominant character archetype throughout the late 20th century into the 21st century. Some fans collect comic books, helping drive up their value. Some have sold for more than US$ 1 million. Comic shops cater to fans, selling comic books, plastic sleeves ("bags") and cardboard backing ("boards") to protect
1778-481: A license for the lucrative Star Wars license, but lost to the incumbent Dark Horse Comics . Due to declining sales across the U.S. comics industry, and his view that his role as publisher and growing family demands interfered with his role as an artist, Lee left Image Comics and sold WildStorm to DC Comics in late 1998, enabling him to focus once again on art. The deal went into effect in January 1999. DC hailed
1905-400: A line of creator-owned comic books which included such popular works as: J. Scott Campbell's Danger Girl , Joe Madureira's Battle Chasers , Humberto Ramos ' Crimson and Out There , Joe Kelly and Chris Bachalo 's Steampunk , Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco 's Arrowsmith , Busiek's Astro City and Warren Ellis 's Two-Step and Tokyo Storm Warning . 1997 also saw
2032-603: A million copies a month each; comics provided very popular cheap entertainment during World War II especially among soldiers, but with erratic quality in stories, art, and printing. In the early 1940s, over 90 percent of girls and boys from seven to seventeen read comic books. In 1941, H. G. Peter and William Moulton Marston , created the female superhero character Wonder Woman , who debuted in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941) and Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman in 1942. MLJ 's Pep Comics debuted as
2159-471: A monster and does not deserve to be human again. After a series of odd murders, Spawn finds the Clown has come back, possessing the body of mortal Barney Saunders, who is having an affair with a woman named Wilma Barbara. Spawn destroys and remakes the world. Saunders is rescued by the Clown so he can use his body. He then brings out the dark urges inside the tenants of an apartment building and uses this to form
2286-489: A new creative direction and Todd McFarlane's return to the book, sold out at the distribution level and received a second printing. By issue #191 in May 2009, with estimated sales of 19,803 copies, Spawn had dropped below Top 100 titles sold monthly to comic shops as reported by Diamond Comic Distributors . As of September 2010, Spawn was ranked at #115 in the top 300 sales figures chart reported by Diamond Comic Distributors. On
2413-433: A new imprint titled America's Best Comics as a showcase for Alan Moore . The line includes the titles Promethea , The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen , Tomorrow Stories , Tom Strong and Top 10 . The studio launched Eye of the Storm in 2001 as an experiment. By this time, WildStorm had become largely a "mature readers" imprint. Joe Casey continued writing Wildcats , retitling it Wildcats 3.0 to reflect
2540-539: A new paradise. During this act, Cogliostrio reveals he is Cain , who was the first person to go to Hell, having murdered his brother in envy. His true goal had always been to take over Hell using a Hellspawn. Having betrayed Spawn, Cogliostrio takes the throne but restores his former student's human form as a parting gift. On Earth, Spawn meets Nyx, a young Wiccan that helps him regain his suit. Using trickery, Mammon usurps Nyx's control over Spawn's union with his suit and removing all of Al's memories. Amnesiac, Spawn wanders
2667-452: A new purpose in stopping evil. In his early battles, Spawn faces street thugs and gangs, becoming a dark, sadistic antihero, and brutally murders the pedophile and child murderer Billy Kincaid . Spawn gains the attention of police detectives Sam Burke and Twitch Williams, and becomes "King of Rat City", a gathering of alleys populated by the city's homeless. There he meets Cogliostro , who knows much about Spawn and becomes his mentor. Spawn
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#17327802753982794-527: A pilot for a TV series for the WB Network was made. The pilot never aired and was not picked up as a series, although the pilot was later leaked on the internet. Stormwatch was relaunched as Stormwatch: Team Achilles , about a team of normal soldiers who combat rogue superheroes. Robbie Morrison wrote a one-shot featuring the Authority characters, titled "Scorched Earth" (2003). It was serialized as
2921-795: A portmanteau of the titles of the Jim Lee comic series WildC.A.T.S. and Stormwatch . Its main fictional universe, the Wildstorm Universe , featured costumed heroes . Wildstorm maintained a number of its core titles from its early period, and continued to publish material expanding its core universe. Its main titles included WildC.A.T.S , Stormwatch , Gen , Wetworks , and The Authority ; it also produced single-character-oriented series like Deathblow and Midnighter , and published secondary titles like Welcome to Tranquility . Wildstorm also published creator-owned material, and licensed properties from other companies, covering
3048-510: A profound impact upon the American comic-book industry. Their popularity, along with mainstream media attention and critical acclaim, combined with changing social tastes, led to a considerably darker tone in comic books during the 1990s nicknamed by fans as the "grim-and-gritty" era. The growing popularity of antiheroes such as Wolverine and the Punisher exemplified this change, as did
3175-442: A promotional item to consumers who mailed in coupons clipped from Procter & Gamble soap and toiletries products. The company printed 10,000 copies. The promotion proved a success, and Eastern Color that year produced similar periodicals for Canada Dry soft drinks , Kinney Shoes , Wheatena cereal and others, with print runs of from 100,000 to 250,000. Also in 1933, Gaines and Wildenberg collaborated with Dell to publish
3302-408: A result of this, Simmons' friend and partner Bruce Stinson (codename Chapel ) is secretly hired to kill him. Simmons is burned to death and sent to Hell . Making a deal with the devil Malebolgia , Simmons agrees to become a Hellspawn. After swearing to serve Malebolgia, he is allowed to see his wife Wanda one last time. Malebolgia returns Simmons to the living realm with a severely burned body, and
3429-468: A resurgence in popularity as the title approached its 300th issue, with the title once again becoming a fixture in Diamond's Top 100. The 300th issue made Spawn the longest-running independent comic book series of all time. In 2021, McFarlane expanded his Spawn Universe with 3 new ongoing titles and a one-shot titled Spawn Universe No. 1 which sold 211,000 copies. The first spinoff, titled King Spawn ,
3556-488: A revamp of all the Wildstorm Universe titles, including comic-books by writers such as: Alan Moore , Warren Ellis , Adam Warren , Sean Phillips , and Joe Casey . After this revamp the new Wildcats series, Stormwatch and DV8 took the places of the most popular and most commercially successful comics of the Wildstorm Universe. Wildstorm also made a presentation to Lucasfilm Ltd. in an attempt to obtain
3683-595: A single WildStorm imprint, and discarding the "Universe" and "Signature Series" imprints. In 2007 , the WildStorm fictional universe became "Earth-50", part of the DC Comics Multiverse . In April 2008 , Ben Abernathy announced that the events of Wildstorm: Revelations , Wildstorm: Armageddon and Number of the Beast would segue into Wildstorm: World's End , a post-apocalyptic direction for
3810-421: A sub-imprint of Image. He explained: "During the startup of Image Comics, I incorporated my business activities under the name Aegis Entertainment. As Aegis grew and the marketplace changed, I decided a new name would more accurately define the nature of the titles we produce". In conjunction with the name change, former DC editor Bill Kaplan was brought in to oversee production and scheduling, in an effort to combat
3937-520: A superhero, science-fiction and adventure anthology, but after the title introduced the teen-humor feature "Archie" in 1942, the feature's popularity would soon eclipse all other MLJ properties, leading the publisher to rename itself Archie Comics . Following the end of World War II, the popularity of superheroes greatly diminished, while the comic-book industry itself expanded. A few well-established characters such as Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman continued to sell, but DC canceled series starring
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4064-494: A ten-cent pricetag [ sic ] on the comic books". When Delacorte declined to continue with Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics , Eastern Color on its own published Famous Funnies #1 (cover-dated July 1934), a 68-page giant selling for 10¢. Distributed to newsstands by the mammoth American News Company , it proved a hit with readers during the cash-strapped Great Depression , selling 90 percent of its 200,000 print, although putting Eastern Color more than $ 4,000 in
4191-402: A third of all North American sales in the early 1950s. Its 90 titles averaged a circulation of 800,000 copies per title for every issue, with Walt Disney's Comics and Stories peaking at a circulation of three million a month in 1953. Eleven of the top 25 bestselling comic books at the time were Dell titles. Out of 40 publishers active in 1954, Dell, Atlas (i.e. Marvel), DC, and Archie were
4318-508: A true comic book. But it did offer all original material and was sold on newsstands ". The Funnies ran for 36 issues, published Saturdays through October 16, 1930. In 1933, salesperson Maxwell Gaines , sales manager Harry I. Wildenberg , and owner George Janosik of the Waterbury, Connecticut , company Eastern Color Printing —which printed, among other things, Sunday-paper comic-strip sections – produced Funnies on Parade as
4445-777: A way to keep their presses running. Like The Funnies , but only eight pages, this appeared as a newsprint magazine. Rather than using original material, however, it reprinted in color several comic strips licensed from the McNaught Syndicate , the Ledger Syndicate , and the Bell-McClure Syndicate . These included such popular strips as cartoonist Al Smith 's Mutt and Jeff , Ham Fisher 's Joe Palooka , and Percy Crosby 's Skippy . Eastern Color neither sold this periodical nor made it available on newsstands , but rather sent it out free as
4572-463: A way to stop it, Spawn discovers Wanda's twin children are responsible. He stops them from killing their entire family but cannot destroy them. Zera reveals Jake is God and Katie is Satan. Due to their hatred of each other and constant fighting, the Mother removed their powers and positions and sent them to Earth. She tells him he cannot stop Armageddon. However, he has the potential to gain the power of
4699-569: A wide variety of genres . Its creator-owned titles included Red Menace , A God Somewhere , and Ex Machina , while its licensed titles included Friday the 13th , A Nightmare on Elm Street , The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , StarCraft , the Dante's Inferno game, The X-Files , and the God of War video game series. DC shut down the Wildstorm imprint in December 2010. In September 2011,
4826-461: A year. In 1929, Dell Publishing (founded by George T. Delacorte, Jr. ) published The Funnies , described by the Library of Congress as "a short-lived newspaper tabloid insert" and not to be confused with Dell's 1936 comic-book series of the same name. Historian Ron Goulart describes the 16-page, four-color periodical as "more a Sunday comic section without the rest of the newspaper than
4953-516: Is a fictional antihero appearing in a monthly comic book of the same name published by American company Image Comics , as well as in a number of films, television series, and video game adaptations set in the Image Universe . Created by Todd McFarlane , Spawn first appeared in Spawn #1 (May 1992). Simmons is a mercenary who died and went to Hell for his crimes against humanity. Following
5080-552: Is attacked by a new Redeemer, causing his costume to evolve once more. After another encounter with the Curse, the suit sends him to Hell. Malebolgia later sends him back with full control of the suit. Spawn wears a living symbiotic costume, Leetha of the 7th House of K (also known as K7-Leetha). While wearing it, the host assumes a dominant role over the suit. His shroud, spikes, chains and skulls are all part of an organism bonded to his central nervous system that protects Spawn even if he
5207-467: Is hunted by the warrior angel Angela , who hunts Hellspawns for sport, and battles the cyborg mob enforcer Overt-Kill . He fights the angelic warrior Anti-Spawn , also known as the Redeemer, who is really Jason Wynn . Following a conflict with the Redeemer, Spawn's costume undergoes a significant upgrade. The upgraded suit features a new cape and chains, which are able to change shape. Additionally,
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5334-441: Is killed when Suzanne throws Zera's head into the street. Nyx is freed and she and Spawn become friends again. Ab and Zab create a hell where visitors are forced to view their deepest fears, which are eaten by demons called sin-eaters. While confronting Ab and Zab, Spawn is faced with his own sin against Wanda and his unborn child. Unable to break free from the guilt, Spawn is parasitized by a sin eater. When Nyx interferes, he breaks
5461-443: Is later attacked by Clown, who removes her wings. When Spawn returns, she is powerless and insane and finds Freak and Violator. Despite Freak's warnings, Clown begins to deceive Jim and informs him his suit is a living being and then vanishes. Clown is arrested by Sam and Twitch and meets the leader of a vampire group to attempt to form a unity between the leader, Clown, and Spawn. Mob members kill Gilbert Sanchez for his information on
5588-581: Is now trapped in Hell, where Al must rescue her. He fights Satan and saves his wife. God and Satan are no longer twins because McFarlane lost the right to use the Man of Miracles character due to a copyright dispute with Marvel. Man of Miracles is retconned out of existence, and God and Satan are based on the Abrahamic story of Creation. After saving Wanda from Satan, she goes to Heaven and Spawn continues to protect
5715-475: Is soon ready to enter the human dimension. Making his way to the alleys, he blows his head off. Meanwhile, Jim Downing, an amnesiac man healing at a hospital, wakes up. He seems to know Spawn. A janitor tries to make money off Jim's story and calls a lawyer, who later commits suicide. A thug is paid to capture Jim and attacks him with a flaming skull. In the ensuing fight, the hospital is set on fire and Jim transforms into Spawn. After killing his attacker, Jim escapes
5842-464: Is taken symbolically as the beginning of a new era, although his success was not immediate. It took two years for the Flash to receive his own title, and Showcase itself was only a bimonthly book, though one which was to introduce a large number of enduring characters. By 1959, the slowly building superhero revival had become clear to DC's competitors. Archie jumped on board that year, and Charlton joined
5969-479: Is then given a journal by his father that reveals his ancestor came across a Hellspawn in the past known as the Gunslinger Spawn. There, Spawn speaks with Wanda, who cannot forgive Al for the death of their child. However, she still loves the man inside Spawn. Trying to take out Cyan's knife, Spawn somehow suppresses the suit. Cyan and Nyx appear, and K7-Leetha appears and takes over Nyx. Now controlled by
6096-518: Is unconscious. As Spawn struggles to find a way to regain control, he notices that the attacks are coming from both Heaven and Hell. Due to increasing attacks, Spawn begins to lose himself to evil. With help from the Heap, an emissary of the Greenworld, Spawn manages to regain his goal. Greenworld, a dimension whose power is equal to both Heaven and Hell, gives new powers to Spawn to better understand
6223-414: Is undoubtedly Todd McFarlane's Spawn , which, without the added marketing push of fancy covers, poly bagged issues, or card inserts has become the best-selling comic on a consistent basis that is currently being published." Sales slumped around the time of Spawn #25, but by Spawn #45 it was again a consistently strong seller. The popularity of the franchise peaked with the 1997 Spawn feature film ,
6350-667: The Flash and Green Lantern and converted All-American Comics and All Star Comics to Western titles, and Star Spangled Comics to a war title. The publisher also launched such science-fiction titles as Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space . Martin Goodman 's Timely Comics , also known as Atlas, canceled its three formerly high-selling superhero titles starring Captain America (created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby ),
6477-613: The Human Torch , and the Sub-Mariner , briefly reviving the characters in 1954 only to cancel them again shortly thereafter to focus on horror, science fiction, teen humor, romance and Western genres. Romance comics became strongly established, with Prize Comics ' Young Romance and with Young Love , the latter written and drawn by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby; those two titles' popularity led to an explosion of romance comics from many publishers. Dell 's comic books accounted for
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#17327802753986604-685: The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency held hearings on comic book indecency from April to June 1954. In the wake of these troubles, a group of comics publishers, led by National and Archie, founded the Comics Code Authority in 1954 and drafted the Comics Code, intended as "the most stringent code in existence for any communications media". A Comic Code Seal of Approval soon appeared on virtually every comic book carried on newsstands. EC, after experimenting with less controversial comic books, dropped its comics line to focus on
6731-663: The Yellow Kid . The 196-page, square-bound, black-and-white publication, which also includes introductory text by E. W. Townsend , measured 5 by 7 inches (130 mm × 180 mm) and sold for 50 cents. The neologism "comic book" appears on the back cover. Despite the publication of a series of related Hearst comics soon afterward, the first monthly proto-comic book, Embee Distributing Company's Comic Monthly , did not appear until 1922. Produced in an 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 -by-9-inch (220 mm × 230 mm) format, it reprinted black-and-white newspaper comic strips and lasted
6858-806: The crossover limited series DC/Wildstorm: DreamWar one of the earliest times where DC and WildStorm characters would appear together. The six-issue comic book limited series was written by Keith Giffen , drawn by Lee Garbett , and published by DC Comics . The Stormwatch: PHD title ended in November 2009. The remaining series each received another creative-team shake-up as 2010 began: February's The Authority #18 by Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman with art by Al Barrionuevo , Wildcats #19 by Adam Beechen with art by Tim Seeley and Ryan Winn , and April's Gen #35 by Phil Hester and art by Cruddie Torian . WildStorm varied its publishing with licensed properties, such as: A Nightmare on Elm Street , Friday
6985-550: The "WildStorm Universe" imprint, the creator-owned properties became the "WildStorm Signature Series" imprint, and all the licensed properties remained under the "WildStorm" imprint. Following Eye of the Storm , WildStorm published fewer WildStorm Universe titles, including Majestic and Wildcats: Nemesis ; Majestic was based on a character that had appeared in DC Comics Superman titles. In August 2006 , WildStorm simplified its "brand" by returning all content to
7112-434: The 13th , The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , Mirror's Edge , World of Warcraft , The X-Files , Dante's Inferno , and God of War . WildStorm has also published original graphic novels from writers Kevin J. Anderson , John Ridley and David Brin . The imprint was shut down in December 2010, with Wildcats (vol. 5) #30 as its last issue, although DC Comics announced that the characters would reappear some time in
7239-535: The 1960s, DC, and then Marvel, began to include writer and artist credits on the comics that they published. Other notable companies publishing comics during the Silver Age included the American Comics Group (ACG), Charlton , Dell , Gold Key , Harvey Comics , and Tower . Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll were featured, as the anti-authoritarian underground comix made waves in 1968, following
7366-457: The 1970s coincided with the appearance of comic-book specialty stores across North America. These specialty stores were a haven for more distinct voices and stories, but they also marginalized comics in the public eye. Serialized comic stories became longer and more complex, requiring readers to buy more issues to finish a story. In the mid-to-late 1980s, two series published by DC Comics , Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen , had
7493-542: The 1990s changing the format and distribution of their comic books to more closely resemble non-comics publishing. The " minicomics " form, an extremely informal version of self-publishing , arose in the 1980s and became increasingly popular among artists in the 1990s, despite reaching an even more limited audience than the small presses. The development of the modern American comic book happened in stages. Publishers had collected comic strips in hardcover book form as early as 1842, with The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck ,
7620-520: The 36-page Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics , which historians consider the first true American comic book; Goulart, for example, calls it "the cornerstone for one of the most lucrative branches of magazine publishing". Distribution took place through the Woolworth's department-store chain, though it remains unclear whether it was sold or given away; the cover displays no price, but Goulart refers, either metaphorically or literally, to "sticking
7747-598: The American comic book has been adapted periodically outside the United States, especially in Canada and the United Kingdom . While comics can be the work of a single creator, the labor of creating them is frequently divided between a number of specialists. There may be a separate writer and artist , or there may be separate artists for the characters and backgrounds. Particularly in superhero comic books,
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#17327802753987874-678: The CCA) stopped publishing crime and horror titles, which was their entire business, and were forced out of the market altogether, turning to magazine publishing instead. By 1960, output had stabilized at about 1,500 releases per year (representing a greater than fifty percent decline since 1952). The dominant comic book genres of the post-CCA 1950s were funny animals, humor, romance , television properties, and Westerns . Detective, fantasy , teen, and war comics were also popular, but adventure, superheroes, and comic strip reprints were in decline, with Famous Funnies seeing its last issue in 1955. In
8001-646: The Dead Zone, although a Hellspawn would not be welcomed there. Upon entering, Spawn is confronted by the Disciple, who tears his brain out, throws his heart into the Greenworld, and his body into Hell. Mammon captures and tortures Spawn to learn his secrets. When Spawn's heart falls to the Greenworld, a soul is freed. Chris meets with his mother and travels to Hell along with Sam Burke and Twitch Williams to rescue Spawn from Mammon. Spawn escapes and returns to Earth, where signs of Armageddon begin to appear. Looking for
8128-671: The Earth. He releases a group of angels called the Forgotten and stays neutral in the war between Heaven and Hell. He discovers Mammon is a member of the Fallen who was sent to Hell. Spawn regains his memories thanks to the power of the Greenworld. His suit evolves once more and seems one with his body. However, as time progresses, he begins to hate himself. Having been rejected by Heaven and Hell, he now lives in an abandoned warehouse as maggots and other insects crawl inside his body. He returns to
8255-572: The K7, Nyx tries to kill Cyan and Wanda but is halted by Mammon. The entire group goes to a castle, where Mammon explains his plan to make a perfect Hellspawn. He wants the Rapture to occur so Satan, God, and Malebolgia will be gone. He reveals his perfect Hellspawn is Al and Wanda's miscarried child, Morana. After washing herself in virgin's blood, Morana bonds with the uniform and gets ready to consume her parents' souls. Cyan taps into her powers and goes to
8382-609: The Modern Horror age. But as of 2009 historians and fans use " Bronze Age " to describe the period of American mainstream comics history that began with the period of concentrated changes to comic books in 1970. Unlike the Golden/Silver Age transition, the Silver/Bronze transition involves many continuing books, making the transition less sharp. The development of the " direct market " distribution system in
8509-785: The Spawn , Sam & Twitch , and the Japanese manga Shadows of Spawn . Spawn was adapted into a 1997 feature film and portrayed by Michael Jai White , an HBO animated series lasting from 1997 until 1999, a series of action figures from McFarlane Toys , and an upcoming reboot film starring Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner . The character appears in annual compilations, mini-series specials written by guest authors and artists, and numerous crossover storylines in other comic books, including Savage Dragon , Invincible , and three DC Comics crossovers with Batman . Todd McFarlane 's hobby of drawing began at an early age, and he created
8636-691: The Superman crossover story arc Warworld Saga . A 12 issue WildC.A.T.S series by Matthew Rosenberg and Stephen Segovia ran from 2022 to 2023. The 2023 series Birds of Prey features WildC.A.T.S member Zealot, and the new Outsiders series relaunches the Wildstorm title Planetary with a new version of the character The Drummer as well as the Authority's sentient home The Carrier. The 2023 DC Black Label mini-series Waller vs. Wildstorm featured Wildstorm characters such as Team 7 and Stormwatch . In 2023, James Gunn of DC Studios announced that
8763-678: The WildC.A.T.s characters they released in 1993. In 1995, Wildstorm created an imprint called Homage Comics , centered on more writer-driven books. The imprint started with Kurt Busiek 's Astro City and The Wizard's Tale , James Robinson's Leave It to Chance (with Paul Smith), and Terry Moore 's Strangers In Paradise . Subsequently, the imprint featured works by Sam Kieth , including The Maxx , Zero Girl and Four Women , three of Warren Ellis ' pop-comics mini-series, Mek , Red , and Reload , and Jeff Mariotte 's weird western Desperadoes . In 1997, Cliffhanger debuted
8890-407: The angsty and irreverent nature of characters like Spider-Man , Hulk , X-Men and Fantastic Four . This was a time of social upheaval, giving birth to a new generation of hip and more counter-cultural youngsters, who found a voice in these books. Because Marvel's books were distributed by its rival, National, from 1957 until 1968 Marvel were restricted to publishing only eight titles a month. This
9017-408: The art may be divided between: The process begins with the writer (often in collaboration with one or more others, who may include the editor and/or the penciller) coming up with a story idea or concept, then working it up into a plot and storyline , finalizing it with a script . After the art is prepared, the dialogue and captions are lettered onto the page from the script, and an editor may have
9144-478: The bandwagon in 1960. In 1961, at the demand of publisher Martin Goodman (who was reacting to a surge in sales of National's newest superhero title The Justice League of America ), writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four for Atlas, which now re-named itself Marvel Comics . With an innovation that changed the comic-book industry, Fantastic Four #1 initiated
9271-566: The boots and gloves are replaced with spikes. After this transformation, the suit starts feeding off souls. After this, Tony Twist sends a reprogrammed Overt-Kill after Terry, and Spawn is forced to reveal his identity while saving his friend. A well-placed shot from Twitch Williams brings down Overt-Kill. Spawn is part of Angela's trial and later travels to the South and encounters the KKK and an abusive father of two boys. After returning to New York, he
9398-445: The burning building in human form, eventually being taken in by firefighters. After being taken to another hospital, he leaves, reunites with his previous nurse Sara, and begins to transform. He calls Sara but leaves before she can see him. Meanwhile, a reporter begins to ask questions about the incident at the hospital. Wandering the city, Jim is attacked and kills his assailants. This draws the attention of Sam and Twitch, who recognize
9525-418: The card game, Wildstorms: The Expandable Super-Hero Card Game produced between 1995 - 1997, which was later spun off into a crossover set of cards with Marvel. The crossover was the swan song for the Wildstorm game as Marvel's merchandising clout succeeded in pushing Wildstorm's out of the spotlight. Although the timing was right for their card game, they were too early by a year with a Pog game which used
9652-749: The cast, while WildC.A.T.s villain Helspont appeared in Superman #7 and #8, Grunge appeared in Superboy #8, Zealot appeared in Deathstroke #9, and Spartan appeared in Team 7 #5. Midnighter was a recurring character in Grayson , before spinning off into his own ongoing series. Midnighter and Apollo also appeared in a 6-issue miniseries, Midnighter and Apollo . On February 16, 2017, Wildstorm
9779-490: The chaos as Spawn's doings. After reuniting with Sara and telling him about his transformation, Jim wanders off again and meets Wanda Blake, Al Simmons' ex-wife. She recognizes Jim as the form Al took when he originally returned to earth. On Wanda's advice, Jim travels to Rat City and finds Spawn's throne and is met by an angel. Jim beats the angel in a fight and leaves. He finds out that a man working for Gilbert Sanchez has been asking questions about him. The angel Spawn beat
9906-599: The character Spawn when he was 16, spending "countless hours" perfecting the appearance of each component of the character's visual design. Spawn saw considerable popularity upon its initial release in the 1990s. Comic book collecting had a marked upswing at the time, fueled by the speculator boom looking for the next hot book that would jump in value after its release. McFarlane had enjoyed superstar status among comic fans with his work on Spider-Man , which had featured McFarlane's name prominently as both writer and artist. McFarlane's subsequent break with Marvel Comics and
10033-501: The comic books. An American comic book is also known as a floppy comic . It is typically thin and stapled, unlike traditional books . American comic books are one of the three major comic book industries globally, along with Japanese manga and the Franco-Belgian comic books . The typical size and page count of comics have varied over the decades, generally tending toward smaller formats and fewer pages. Historically,
10160-534: The comic-book debut of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster , the future creators of Superman . The two began their careers with the musketeer swashbuckler "Henri Duval", doing the first two installments before turning it over to others and, under the pseudonyms "Leger and Reuths", they created the supernatural -crimefighter adventure Doctor Occult . In 1938, after Wheeler-Nicholson's partner Harry Donenfeld had ousted him, National Allied editor Vin Sullivan pulled
10287-460: The company relaunched its entire superhero line with a rebooted continuity in an initiative known as The New 52 , which included Wildstorm characters incorporated into that continuity with its long-standing DC characters. In February 2017 Wildstorm was revived as a standalone universe with The Wild Storm , by writer Warren Ellis . However, the characters were reintroduced to DC continuity in 2021. Wildstorm, founded by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi ,
10414-432: The countercultural era. Legal issues and paper shortages led to a decline in underground comix output from its 1972 peak. In 1974 the passage of anti-paraphernalia laws in the US led to the closing of most head shops, which throttled underground comix distribution. Its readership also dried up as the hippie movement itself petered out in the mid-1970s. Wizard originally used the phrase "Bronze Age", in 1995, to denote
10541-464: The country. Some cities passed laws banning comic books entirely. In 1954, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham published his book Seduction of the Innocent , where he discussed what he perceived as sadistic and homosexual undertones in horror comics and superhero comics respectively, and singled out EC Comics due to its success as a publisher of these genres. In response to growing public anxiety,
10668-575: The darker tone of some independent publishers such as First Comics , Dark Horse Comics , and (founded in the 1990s) Image Comics . This tendency towards darkness and nihilism was manifested in DC's production of heavily promoted comic book stories such as " A Death in the Family " in the Batman series (in which The Joker brutally murdered Batman's sidekick Robin ), while at Marvel the continuing popularity of
10795-489: The day of its release in 2011, issue #200 sold out. This issue featured work by Greg Capullo, David Finch, Michael Golden, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Danny Miki, and Ashley Wood. A second printing was released the next month. It received a negative review from IGN . Spawn 's sales continued to decline despite a series of homage covers designed to renew interest, ultimately hitting its lowest sales number of under 12,000 retail orders in Spawn #243. Spawn began
10922-424: The decision as one that would "strengthen both WildStorm's ability to expand its editorial goals and diversifying DC's output". WildStorm was editorially separate from DC Comics, and the two companies maintained offices on opposite coasts: Wildstorm in California , and DC in New York City . DC's acquisition of WildStorm allowed their respective universes to co-exist, and characters from either universe could appear in
11049-471: The early days of comic books, this practice had all but vanished during the 1940s and 1950s. Comic books were produced by comic book companies rather than by individual creators (EC being a notable exception, a company that not only credited its creative teams but also featured creators' biographies). Even comic books by revered and collectible artists like Carl Barks were not known by their creator's name— Disney comics by Barks were signed " Walt Disney ". In
11176-444: The final say (but, once ready for printing, it is difficult and expensive to make any major changes), before the comic is sent to the printer. The creative team, the writer and artist(s), may work for a comic book publisher who handles the marketing, advertising, and other logistics. A wholesale distributor, such as Diamond Comic Distributors , the largest in the US, distributes the printed product to retailers. Another aspect of
11303-556: The forces of Heaven, Hell and humanity. He is then killed by the two, who then fight alone on Earth. Spawn comes back and resurrects everyone with the knowledge of what happened. He leaves God and Satan to fight in their own little world and closes the doors to Heaven, Hell, and Earth. He asks to be turned into a human by the Mother but later asks to once again become a Hellspawn after remembering that, prior to his first death as Al Simmons, he had beaten Wanda and caused her to miscarry their child. This causes him to conclude he has always been
11430-413: The forces of Heaven. Spawn and Angela journey to Hell to stop him. During the battle, Angela mortally wounds Malebolgia, who kills her in retaliation. Consumed with anger, Spawn takes Malebolgia's head. Upon killing Malebolgia, Spawn learns Hell's throne is rightfully his when it is offered to him by the demon Mammon. After initially refusing, Spawn deliberates with Cogliostro and decides to turn Hell into
11557-449: The form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of Action Comics , which included the debut of the superhero Superman . This was followed by a superhero boom that lasted until the end of World War II . After the war, while superheroes were marginalized, the comic book industry rapidly expanded and genres such as horror, crime, science fiction and romance became popular. The 1950s saw
11684-425: The formation of Image Comics was seen by many as a sea-change event, changing the way in which comics were produced. Wizard , in May 2008, rated "The Launch of Image Comics" as #1 in the list of events that rocked the comic industry from 1991 to 2008. The first issue of Spawn was very popular, selling 1.7 million copies. During Spawn ' s second year of publication, Wizard noted that "The top dog at Image
11811-815: The future. DC Comics relaunched its DC Universe imprint in September 2011, which included the integration of the WildStorm characters into the DC Universe. The initial wave of relaunched titles included: Voodoo and Grifter solo series, a revived Stormwatch title featuring Jack Hawksmoor , Midnighter , Apollo , the Engineer , and Jenny Quantum , and a revived version of Team 7 with non-WildStorm characters Deathstroke , Amanda Waller and Black Canary . The Teen Titans spin-off title The Ravagers featured Caitlin Fairchild and Warblade as part of
11938-471: The future. She talks with an old woman who gives her a message for Al. Returning, she has Spawn summon the last twelve members of the Legion, who are beaten by Morana. Mammon insults Al and disowns Morana. Cyan tells Nyx a spell to trap Mammon and Morana. It works, both demons are sealed away, and the others return home. Al jumps into another dimension to be reborn as a weapon against both heaven and hell. Spawn
12065-423: The heart but the Mother gives Spawn a piece of the fruit and resurrects him. He gains an angelic form and greater power. Spawn returns to Earth, which has been destroyed by Four Horsemen ; angels and demons are waiting to fight their final battle. After defeating Zera, Spawn finds dead warriors of Heaven, one of whom is Granny Blake, who is betrayed by her faith. Spawn battles the forces of Satan and God, destroying
12192-483: The introduction of the Comics Code Authority in the wake of Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency , which, ignoring the social problems caused by the wars of 1939–45 and 1950–52, sought to blame those problems solely on comics. While there was only a 9% drop in the number of releases between 1952 and 1953, circulation plummeted by an estimated 30–40%. The cause of the decrease is not entirely clear. Television had begun to provide competition with comic books, but there
12319-420: The knife from Weasel's body and kills him with it. Mammon appears, sending the brothers home while he hides the drug dealer's body. Nyx and Spawn kill the last sin eater and Spawn discovers Richard cannot remember their parents due to a spell placed by Mammon. Wanting to know more about them, Spawn finds their home under a spell placed by Mammon. His mother planned with Mammon to create the strongest Hellspawn. Al
12446-628: The late 1940s and early 1950s horror and true-crime comics flourished, many containing graphic violence and gore. Due to such content, moral crusaders became concerned with the impact of comics on the youth, and were blaming comic books for everything from poor grades to juvenile delinquency to drug abuse. This perceived indecency resulted in the collection and public burning of comic books in Spencer, West Virginia and Binghamton, New York in 1948, which received national attention and triggered other public burnings by schools and parent groups across
12573-486: The line. In July of the same year, Christos Gage and Neil Googe published a new WildCats: World's End #1. There followed, in August 2008, a new Authority: World's End #1 by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning with art by Simon Coleby , Gen #21 by Scott Beatty with art by Mike Huddleson , and Stormwatch: PHD #13 by Ian Edginton with art by Leandro Fernández and Francisco Paronzini . That same year, DC releaseld
12700-433: The major players in volume of sales. By this point, former big-time players Fawcett and Fiction House had ceased publishing. Circulation peaked in 1952 when 3,161 issues of various comics were published with a total circulation of about one billion copies. After 1952, the number of individual releases dropped every year for the rest of the decade, with the biggest falls occurring in 1955–56. The rapid decline followed
12827-573: The most consistently, commercially successful comics from Image. These included Lee's own titles WildC.A.T.s and the teen-hero title Gen , illustrated by J. Scott Campbell. Like many other Image titles, some of the WildStorm titles suffered from inconsistent completion and shipping, resulting in "monthly" comics coming out every few months. This era produced a number of titles of varying popularity including Gen , WildC.A.T.s , Stormwatch , Deathblow , Cybernary , and Whilce Portacio's Wetworks . In late 1993, Lee launched Wildstorm Productions as
12954-421: The new Spawn. Spawn attempts to learn more about Jim but is assaulted and uses his powers on his attacker. Jim later finds the man who had been asking Sara questions. He tracks him to his family's home, which is bombed, killing everyone inside but Spawn. Spawn finds more mob members, questions them further and kills them. In Resurrection, Spawn is revived and is later told by God in dog form that Wanda has died and
13081-462: The pre-release publicity for which helped make Spawn the top-selling comic book for May 1997; in addition, the spin-off Curse of the Spawn #9 came in at fifth best-selling in that same month. However, the film was only a mild commercial success and failed to start a film franchise based on the character. A 2008 issue, Spawn #174, ranked 99th best-selling comic of the month with retail orders of 22,667. In October 2008, issue #185, which marked both
13208-559: The process involved in successful comics is the interaction between the readers/fans and the creator(s). Fan art and letters to the editor were commonly printed in the back of the book, until, in the early 21st century, various Internet forums started to replace this tradition. The growth of comic specialty stores helped permit several waves of independently-produced comics, beginning in the mid-1970s. Some early examples of these – generally referred to as "independent" or "alternative" comics – such as Big Apple Comix , continued somewhat in
13335-534: The product. Paramount had international distribution rights, and later released the film only in a few foreign markets. Toys from both titles were less successful than those made by Todd McFarlane, partly due to poor marketing and partly because the McFarlane toys were targeted at a more mature audience. However, they had a big success copying Wizards of the Coast 's Magic: The Gathering with their introduction of
13462-505: The publication of Robert Crumb 's irregularly published Zap Comix . Frank Stack had published The Adventures of Jesus as far back as 1962, and there had been a trickle of such publications until Crumb's success. What had started as a self-publishing scene soon grew into a minor industry, with Print Mint , Kitchen Sink , Last Gasp and Apex Novelties among the more well-known publishers. These comix were often extremely graphic, and largely distributed in head shops that flourished in
13589-705: The rank of Lieutenant Colonel while serving with Force Recon . He later joins the Secret Service , becomes a high-ranking official, and is recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency . Simmons later joins the U.S. Security Group, an umbrella agency encompassing the CIA, NSA , and NSC , commanded by Director Jason Wynn , and becomes a capable assassin. During a mission in Botswana, Wynn grows tired of Simmons' increasing sense of morality. As
13716-650: The red. That quickly changed, with the book turning a $ 30,000 profit each issue starting with #12. Famous Funnies would eventually run 218 issues, inspire imitators, and largely launch a new mass medium . When the supply of available existing comic strips began to dwindle, early comic books began to include a small amount of new, original material in comic-strip format. Inevitably, a comic book of all-original material, with no comic-strip reprints, debuted. Fledgling publisher Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications, which would evolve into DC Comics , to release New Fun #1 (Feb. 1935). This came out as
13843-486: The same way characters like Spider-Man , Batman , Superman , and even Disney have endured past their creators. Born in Detroit , Michigan , Albert Francis " Al " Simmons is the second oldest of three siblings. His father, Bernard Simmons, is a traveling salesman, and his mother, Esther Simmons, is a devil worshipper. Al Simmons eventually becomes a highly decorated officer in the U.S. Marine Corps , attaining
13970-629: The satirical Mad —a former comic book which was now converted to a magazine format in order to circumvent the Code. DC started a revival in superhero comics in 1956 with the October 1956 revival of its former golden age top-seller The Flash in Showcase #4. Many comics historians peg this as the beginning of the Silver Age of American comic books, although Marvel (at this point still known variously as both Timely and Atlas ) had started reviving some of its old superheroes as early as 1954. The new Flash
14097-402: The series over to Mark Millar . The Authority fused Silver Age superhero concepts with 1990s cynicism. In the 2004 Wildstorm crossover, Coup d'etat , the Authority takes control of the United States. Ellis and artist John Cassaday created Planetary , about "explorers of the strange", an experiment that merged pop culture, comic book history and literary characters. WildStorm launched
14224-700: The shift in tone. The new version was penciled by Dustin Nguyen with inks by Richard Friend. Gen was relaunched with a new first issue, written by X-Men's Chris Claremont. A Gen spinoff, 21 Down , was written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray . After the Point Blank mini-series, Ed Brubaker developed the same themes into the critically acclaimed Sleeper , set in the WildStorm universe. In 2001 Warren Ellis began Global Frequency . The rights for Global Frequency were bought by Warner Bros. in 2004 and
14351-424: The sin eater's illusion. Spawn breaks all the other's illusions and comes across Al Simmons' brother Richard. Spawn decides to allow Richard to feel his sins. Mammon, as Mr. Malefick, had put an influence on Al and Richard Simmons. Only Marc Simmons saved himself from Mammon but was unable to help the others. Richard calls his brothers to help him save the drug dealer's life. Al, instead of calling an ambulance, pulls
14478-408: The size was derived from folding one sheet of Quarter Imperial paper (15 in × 11 in or 380 mm × 280 mm), to print 4 pages which were each 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 by 11 inches (190 mm × 280 mm). This also meant that the page count had to be some multiple of 4. In recent decades, standard comics have been trimmed at about 6.625 x 10.25 inches. The format of
14605-552: The studio to work on the first issue of Cyberforce . Although he worked at the studio, his projects would debut as the work of a new Image "partner studio" firm named Top Cow . Silvestri continued to work out of Wildstorm's studio for about two years. Although WildStorm considered attracting talent, such as John Romita Jr. , from the "Big Two", ( Marvel and DC ), Lee decided to find new talent instead. Lee's talent search yielded Brett Booth in 1992, and J. Scott Campbell in 1993. Apart from McFarlane's Spawn , Wildstorm produced
14732-406: The studio's problems with erratic publication schedules. His attempts to get the studio's characters into other media proved disappointing. A Saturday morning cartoon series of WildC.A.T.s lasted only a single season (1994–1995), while a full-length animated version of Gen was produced but never released in the United States. Disney had acquired the domestic distribution rights, but shelved
14859-754: The success of Superman in Action Comics prompted editors at National Comics Publications (the future DC Comics) to request more superheroes for its titles. In response, Bob Kane and Bill Finger created Batman , who debuted in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939). The period from the late 1930s through roughly the end of the 1940s is referred to by comic book experts as the Golden Age of comic books . It featured extremely large print-runs, with Action Comics and Captain Marvel selling over half
14986-417: The titles of either imprint. In 1999, WildStorm launched several new titles, including The Authority , a dark and violent superhero comic whose characters fought dirty and had little regard for the rights and lives of their opponents; their only goal was to make the world a better place. Warren Ellis created The Authority as a successor to Stormwatch . He wrote its first twelve issues before handing
15113-417: The tradition of the earlier underground comics , while others, such as Star Reach , resembled the output of mainstream publishers in format and genre but were published by smaller artist-owned ventures or by a single artist. This so-called " small press " scene (a term derived from the limited quantity of comics printed in each press-run) continued to grow and diversify, with a number of small publishers in
15240-504: The various X-Men books led to storylines involving the genocide of superpowered "mutants" in allegorical stories about religious and ethnic persecution. In addition, published formats like the graphic novel and the related trade paperback enabled the comic book to gain some respectability as literature. As a result, these formats are now common in book retail and the collections of US public libraries . Spawn (comics) Albert Francis " Al " Simmons , better known as Spawn ,
15367-480: The world and its people. These powers seem to give him control of all of the elements in the world. Spawn is later attacked by Urizen . After recovering, Spawn learns the Greenworld has imbued him with a gift, which he uses to contain Urizen by splitting the ground and imprisoning him inside the earth. After his battle, Spawn learns Malebolgia had caused Urizen's release in an attempt to start Armageddon and conquer
15494-408: Was a cloud with a silver lining, and proved the making of Marvel, allowing the company to concentrate its brightest and best talent on a small number of titles, at a time when its rivals were spreading their creative talents very thin across a huge number of monthly titles. The quality of Marvel's product soared in consequence, and sales soared with it. While the creators of comics were given credit in
15621-464: Was also a rise in conservative values with the election in 1952 of Dwight Eisenhower . The Comics Code Authority, a self-censoring body founded to curb the juvenile delinquency alleged to be due to the crime and horror comics, has often been targeted as the culprit, but sales had begun to drop the year before it was founded. The major publishers were not seriously harmed by the drop in sales, but smaller publishers were killed off: EC (the prime target of
15748-419: Was officially revived with The Wild Storm #1 by Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt , a 24 issue series that re-imagined the Wildstorm Universe. On October 11, 2017, Wildstorm launched a second series under The Wild Storm banner with the 12 issue mini-series The Wild Storm: Michael Cray by Bryan Hill . Following the conclusion of The Wild Storm DC Comics announced that a new Wildcats six issue mini-series
15875-552: Was one of the founding studios that formed Image Comics in 1992. Image grew out of Homage Studios and was founded by artists Whilce Portacio , Jim Lee, Erik Larsen , Rob Liefeld , Todd McFarlane , Marc Silvestri , and Jim Valentino in San Diego, California . All but Portacio decided to become full partners in the new firm. At the time, Lee and Portacio were recognized for their work on various X-Men titles at Marvel Comics . In late 1992, penciller Marc Silvestri joined
16002-447: Was released in August 2021 having pre-order sales of 497,000 copies and total sales of 520,000 copies. The next title, released in October 2021, Gunslinger Spawn sold 385,000 copies, which made it the biggest launch for a new ongoing superhero title in 25 years. The final new series, The Scorched , was released in January 2022 and sold more than 270,000 copies. McFarlane also stated in an interview that he wants Spawn to outlive him
16129-541: Was to debut August 28, 2019, again penned by Ellis with art by Ramon Villalobos, but was cancelled in 2019. Grifter, Apollo, and The Midnighter appeared in the alternate future timeline series Future State : Dark Detective in 2021. The Wildstorm characters were then officially reintroduced into DC Universe continuity later that year in Batman: Urban Legends #5 and Superman and The Authority . The new Authority team then appeared as supporting characters in
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